We Belong To God’s Story

How should Christians read the news? Like non-Christians, only with a radical sense of belonging to God’s story, insofar as God himself has revealed it. In other words, there’s a huge overlap with non-Christians. We’re all created in God’s image, fallen, and sustained by God’s common grace. As Luther and Calvin said, non-Christians have a huge understanding of “things earthly,” even if they do not embrace God as he has revealed himself in his Son through the gospel. More importantly, Paul said it in Romans 1 and 2. We have to distinguish between the Great Commandment (calling us to love God and neighbor), which is the common commission of all human beings, and the Great Commission (calling us to preach the gospel, baptize, and teach). Both are essential, but they’re really different.

Neighbors Loving Neighbors

The newspaper is a form of the law. It draws on common wisdom and data. Even its editorials reflect both the fact of God’s general revelation and its suppression in unrighteousness. Obviously, this natural law isn’t as clear as God’s revealed will in Scripture, which goes deeper in its analysis of our fallen condition. Yet when we read the newspaper, we’re neighbors loving fellow neighbors. In this era between Christ’s two comings, God sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If he shows his common grace toward all people and a common interest in all affairs, these issues should concern us for more than merely practical reasons. We share with non-Christians in the same joys and disappointments of temporal life. However, the gospel isn’t announced in the newspaper. For that, we need heralds who bring the most important news of all. I won’t mention names (like Pat Robertson), but people who expect the Bible to be a special code for the meaning of the daily news (or vice versa) aren’t taking either one seriously enough.